Food Memories Hickory Farms

When I was a kid I remember every year shopping at the mall for the Christmas season. One of my favorite stops when we made these rare excursions was the Hickory Farms store. There were always such great little taste testing stations. I would stare in wonderment at the wheels of baby swiss (my favorite), and roam through all the choices of gift baskets that you could put together for any holiday celebration.

I thought at the time (just like my girls do now) that there wasn't a much better gift than a huge basket of delicious goodies all in bite size packages.  This year our Christmas celebration started early as we received our very own gift box.

You shoud have seen the girls faces light up when I unpacked this little box of treasures. The spreads and cheese ball I am saving for holiday parties that are coming up, but the meats and cheeses I sliced up right away for us to snack on and enjoy.  There was plenty for us to have an afternoon snack and then perfect for the girl's lunchboxes.

...and before you ask, I did share the strawberries.  I didn't become the candy hog I would have loved to be.

What a  great start to our season. I can't wait to share the rest with our friends at the numerous parties we are attending. Not only am I filled with nostalgic memories, we have happy bellies and smiles on our faces.
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Hickory Farms and received a Hickory Farms gift basket to facilitate my review

The Ultimate Party Meatballs Recipe

Tonight John Mark and I are co-hosts of a holiday wedding shower for dear friends of ours. It is technically a company party that encompasses all the different people who work for the same firm as John Mark and live in our area. We are a very close knit group and get together outside of the work environment all the time. I have been a little scatterbrained lately so I was excited to be part of the Mom Central blog tour for the recipe of Ultimate Party meatballs. What a perfect holiday appetizer to take as part of my contribution to the shower. I could let these cook in the crockpot while I worked on other appetizers to bring as well.

The ingredients are so very simple which I appreciate as I run around all day like I live in a mad house.

1 bottle Heinz Chili Sauce
1 Can Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce
1 Package of frozen ready made meatballs

Basically the extent of labor is opening the packages which I can definitely handle. The meatballs go on the bottom then pour on top your other two ingredients. I have my setting at low since I am basically putting these out of my mind for most of the day. I stirred it every few hours.

These are ready for me to take to the wedding shower with a bowl of party toothpicks. Easy to eat and great tasting. I can highly reccomend this recipe for holiday entertaining and the cranberry jelly gives it just the right seasonal flair. Enjoy!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Heinz and Ocean Spray and received the ingredients necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate

St. Nicholas can you do Something about my Car?

Dear St. Nicholaus,

Thank you for your generosity to my girls they are thrilled with the nail polish, fun earrings, and hot cocoa they found in their boot this morning. I wish that I had taken the time to write you also. I hope it doesn't particularly matter that we are not a Catholic family but enjoy the tradition of you all the same due to my german heritage that I want to preserve for my girls.

In my letter to you I have but one wish.....a working vehicle that I can call my own. Since my wreck nearly two months ago, and the repair and subsequent breakdown of my car. I have been utterly frustrated. The second rental car decided to not start this morning just as John Mark left for the airport on a three day work streak in St. Louis. Once again I rely on the good friends in small town to help me out. One good friend helped me by taking Rebecca to and from cheer practice, and then two more friends came out to jump start the rental and take it back to the dealership leaving me another vehicle in it's place.

It is not that I am ungrateful for all the help, it is just hard to rely on others when all you want is your own car back, or to have it replaced so that you can move on. Please consider my one wish for this holiday season is to once again be self sufficient in a vehicle I can call my own. Thank You!

I can't believe I saw Snow today!

While I am so jealous happy that my sister and her family including my aunt and uncle are all having a wonderful time at Walt Disney World. I hope every ride is closed due to unforesseen circumstances. I can't wait to hear all of their adventures when they get back and look forward to the stories of my gorgeous neices and all they experienced.

Since I am not bitter in the slightest, I have to tell you we have been warily anticipating this day. For some reason  the goofy weatherman  insists it it going to snow today. Does he not realize I live in South Texas? I live here expressly because I hate cold and snow in all of it's forms. I never dream of white Christmases when I would much rather have beachy palm tree kinds of Christmases complete in sundresses and sandals.

Snow?
Here?

But yeah, it is freaky weather today and in typical South Texas fashion everyone is going beserk. Schools are trying to decide whether to close and we are waiting to hear if they will cancel my husband's company Christmas Party that we are to attend this evening.

I head to school around lunchtime, and my car is being bombarded with snowflakes. It is just nuts to me. When I got to school the kids were all running around joyfully trying to catch flakes on their tongues, and wishing it would actually stick to the ground, but no such luck.

Our snowflurry was gone by 1:00 pm, and it was clear skies from then on.
There have been rare occasions of snow this far south, but never this early. I wonder what that says about global warming?

For the Love of Advent Calendars

Two traditions are strong in my house as soon as December makes an appearance. The first is that both of my children require Advent Calendars.

The kind that count down the days until Christmas and behind every door is a piece of chocolate. These have long been a family tradition and pretty hard to come buy when you live in a small town. My mom and my sister usually find these wonderful little calendars at World Market and make sure to buy for several friends children as well.

The second tradition is St. Nicholas Day. Now we are not Catholic if that is your first thought, but instead I attribute it to my german roots. My mother grew up with tradtional St. Nicholas as a child in southern Germany. In turn, I was raised to write my letter to St Nicholas on December 5th of every year and place it in my boot (or actually we would use my dad's boots because they were much bigger) at the front door.

The next morning our letters would be gone and our boots had small goodies in them. My mom always included the traditional fruit and nuts in ours along with a small gift.

The girls wrote their letters and Regan's was wonderful making sure to ask after St. Nicholas and he was before asking for her three items. She even encouraged him to take a vaction after the holiday season and to keep those reindeer coats shiny with hair supplements. Rebecca's letter got straight to the point detailing items she deemed appropriate to aske for Christmas.

I should add that with all of Regan's gushing she asked for uber expensive items that she will not get i.e. a laptop, a cell phone, and a vacation to Disney. Rebecca's note in all of it's starkness covered a dvd, board games, and clothes. She is ever the practical one.

I can't wait to put them in their boots at the door and see what happens.

What holiday traditions start off your Christms season?

Eye-yi-yi

Regan has for years failed every school eye exam. Every year no matter what I get a phone call from the school nurse saying how badly her glasses are working and she needs a new prescription. Every year I call the Opthamologist completely frustrated that her lenses seem to be so completely off. After seeing the proffessional they always change her glasses prescription with just a tweak and tell me that her eyes look pretty good. Why is it that the school and the doctor are complete polar opposites on the eye frontier.

This year it was no different, and I basically was dismissive to the school nurse. I really didn't want to take Regan for the proffessional opinion when I knew it was going to be virtually no change yet again....but a dent in my pocket nonetheless.

But I caved....

And vented my frustration to the doctor that either Regan is testing badly with the school eye exam or we really were way off with her numbers. She just looked at me a funny, and said "Does the school know that she is pretty blind in her right eye due to her prematurity and retinopathy at birth?"

No
and I didn't know that either.....

Why is it something that has basically benn with her since birth and in all of her medical charts probably hidden in some obscure medical jargon had never been explained to me....or written out to the school in her file. It is crazy to me that at fourteen years old I learn something so completely new about my child, and one that really can't be fixed.

She overcompensates with her left eye which really works beautifully, and her right eye is a disaster. Boy does that clear up a lot with her ability to focus.

Well now I know and so does the school, and once again her prescription chnaged just slightly, but the opthmologist assured me the glasses she was wearing were just fine, but she would write me a prescription for me to get a current back up pair if I wished.

Designer Tree or Well Loved Sanctuary

My tree every year in no way has a color palette that matches my decor. If I have matching ornaments at all it is because so many of them come in two's for Regan and Rebecca to inherit one day for their own trees. I love my christmas tree, and every ornament I unwrap brings a smile to my face. Whether it is my ornament made for me by my own great grandmother, or the ornaments I bought as a new bride, and the ones I inherited from my mother's tree. I love each story that they have to tell, and I whisper to each one like they were my children that they are my favorite.

Our typical routine is to take everything out of the attic the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We break out the Christmas CD's and the hot cocoa. We get to work with each doing their own traditional jobs. John Mark decorates outside wrapping a tree and lining the sidewalk with lights. I put together the tree (all fake for us). I have to add lights, ribbon, and fun gold curly Q's to it before the first ornament goes up.

Regan unwraps each ornament out of the tissue and we talk about the history of each one. What country they came from, what special meaning or person they came from. Rebecca adds the hooks and I place it in a perfectly planned spot on the tree. When we step back with the finished tree it is pure joy and always makes us feel the Christmas spirit has started.

GameStop saves my Black Friday shopping

I love Black Friday with every fiber of my being. To me it is an example of first of all what retail is really worth (to some degree) and human interaction. Standing in line at Kohl's at four in the morning, you begin to make friends with those around you, find out deals on items you weren't even considering, and learn all kinds of shopping strategies.

The main big ticket item we were hunting for was the Wii. Regan had saved up her money to buy the game system. I was determined to find it at a better price the $199 which is what it was advertised for at Sears and Wal-Mart. Also high on the shopping list was purchasing a Dyson vaccuum for my parents (their funds mind you, not my own). New to my shopping experience this year was having Rebecca join me.

For some reason she was convinced that I was going to the biggest party of the holiday season every year after Thanksgiving. She has begged the entire year to be allowed to go with me. She didn't mind waking up at 3:00 am and wanted to experience all that Black Friday is about. We had our lists, our strategies, and snacks ready to go and we were off to find the bargains. In the midst of all the office furniture in Target we found the Dyson deal, and grabbed it quickly.

The best Wii deal was at HEB Plus which was advertising at $149...but limited supply. The next best deal was GameStop which had a deal with trade in of an old system. No problem there, we were more than willing to sacrifice the old Playstation II for the upgrade.

GameStop was a dream when we arrived there, The employees were wonderful to work with even on the most harrowing day of the year. They answered every question I had and found me an even better deal than I was going for. Apparently they carry factory refurbished systems as well as the new ones. It had already been cleaned, checked, and played in great working condition, and with the trade-in of my system and the purchase of three games we ended up paying a total of $160. forty less than all the competitors.

The girls are thrilled and have really enjoyed their games. I love all the great physical therapy and occupation therapy Regan is getting with how intricate all the sports and activities that come with the Wii are. I ended a wonderful day of shopping with the best Black Friday ever.

How Starbucks ruined my Thanksgiving

Well I had been officially without a car for five weeks. I am not going to lie. It has been hell....no kidding. I loooooove my little Honda Odyssey mini van. Regan could maneuver in the seats easily. Her walker and wheelchair and any extra paraphenalia fit nicely in the back. I could haul eight people around at a moments notice. In short I love my car.

Well due to the small fender bender that I had mentioned before. The insurance company did not opt to toal my car....but to fix it which in small town translation means the local body shop has to order Honda parts from BFE and fix it all up.

What they don't tell you is that anything left in your car will not be touched by a mechanic NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!! I guess that is not part of the repair shop employee screening process.

So say your darling child left hot chocolate from Starbucks in the back cup holder and it has been an extended period of time in an enclosed space with no thoughtful repair shop man to dispose of it for you. When you get your car back....It is going to smell! I mean stink so bad that you once again you thank God that you live in south Texas and can roll your windows down to drive and won't be freezing.

So the day before Thanksgiving when I was celebrating the return of my precious little mini van....I spent the whole evening febreezing, lysol, renuzit....etc.

Then the next day we took Rebecca's friend back to her family ranch in a neighboring town and on my way back.....my van died.

On the side of a road in a still smelly van on Thanksgiving morning and a house full of people heading my way.

Starbucks is not to blame I know....but gosh it made for a really difficult day.

I should have Blogged but Instead got Distracted by Pilgrims

Today my younger Gifted and Talented group are presenting their Thanksgiving play to the local Lions Club. In some form of insanity I thought it was a good idea to take seven boys and one girl from 1st-4th grade to present a program for my husbands organization. Let me be clear that these boys can be wild.

It is partly why I just adore them, they are creative free spririted and imaginative beyond belief. It makes them perfect in GT, but sometimes difficult in socail situations. After they had made their own costumes, helped with script, designed the background.....well I couldn't help but want to show them off.

So last week we practiced like crazy. Then the 7th grade class who had built a tepee and and drying rack for a history project decided to work with us and loan us their items to enhance our scene. Add a Mayflower and we had the cutest little set you ever saw.  We moved all this  industrial equipment from the school to the community center with the help of the 7th grade and we were good to go.

My darlings were fabulous if I do say so myself, and the only time I really had to reign them in was not letting them go crazy when they were offered lunch by the Lions Club. One of my boys wanted to know if he could put three rolls on his plate. One wanted to keep the community ketchup on our table just in case he needed more, and one proceeded to pick off all the breading from his fried chicken and put it on a napkin beside his plate (at least he used a napkin).

I pronounced the day a success and I am very proud of my younger group even if social skills beomes my next major project with them.